Hashtag Authentic Page 12

  MAKE USE OF SAFETY FEATURES

  Instagram has built-in options to block unwanted followers, offensive language, specific key words and to hide your Stories from anyone you choose. You can also switch your profile to private at any time (and back again), and you can turn comments off on individual posts. Any abuse, inappropriate content or spam can and should be reported using the options provided, so that Instagram can review and remove it. IG has the most friendly and welcoming community I’ve found online, and generally your followers will support you if anyone tries to lash out. I’ve only ever had a couple of nasty comments in all my thousands of posts.

  CURATE YOUR EXPLORE PAGE

  If you’re regularly being shown content you find upsetting, distasteful or unhelpful for your mental health, it’s easy to tell the app that you don’t want to see posts of this kind. Tap on the offending post and hit the three dots in the top right-hand corner. You’ll see an option titled ‘show fewer posts like this’. Do this for all the problematic posts, and the algorithm should start making better suggestions.

  BE WISE TO PHOTOSHOP

  ‘The camera never lies’ is a phrase that isn’t ageing well. While the camera might record the truth, the pictures we see are easily altered in Photoshop, or even in phone-based apps. It’s not only celebrity idols and models manipulating their image – there’s a big trend for fashion bloggers and regular people making use of editing options, often to produce a fake reality that their followers believe. The answer is not going to be found in policing how people creatively process their images but for us, as the audience, to become more clued up on what we are looking at, and how to decipher it.

  BE WARY OF UNQUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS

  Be wary of trusting your health to a stranger on the Internet. Most have very good intentions, and some are excellent and knowledgeable, but it can be very hard to tell the good from the bad, and neither follower count nor a blue ‘Verified’ tick can replace a genuine qualification. Do your research, check testimonials, and ask your (offline) doctor if in doubt.

  KNOW WHEN YOU’RE BEING SOLD TO

  Sitting alongside both of the previous points comes the confusing world of concealed marketing. How do we know when someone is sharing their honest opinions, and when we’re being subjected to a paid promotion? By law, Instagram users are supposed to clearly disclose any such work, with a banner across the top of grid posts and Stories, or at least a hashtag such as #sponsored or #ad. If a user was given a product for free but was not paid to post, they should still be mentioning this in their caption – usually with a phrase like ‘gifted’ or ‘review sample’. However, as the penalties for failing to disclose have so far been rather light, a lot of sponsored content appearing on Instagram still isn’t making itself clear. You can often spot a hidden ad by a few common features: packaging is shown deliberately facing the camera, the brand is prominently tagged, and the caption talks in glowing terms about a product. If in doubt, ask the creator if they were paid, and they should be happy to answer you.

  UNFOLLOW ACCOUNTS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL BAD

  It sounds so obvious, but many of us fail to do this, for fear of offending, losing followers ourselves, or simply for the dark pleasure of looking at something that hurts. Take a moment, right now, to unfollow anyone that reliably makes you feel blue. Perhaps it’s because of their impossibly perfect life, or because they’re a bit of a ‘frenemy’, or because you find their work makes you doubt your own self-worth. If unfollowing will cause too much emotional fallout, use the ‘mute’ feature instead to hide anyone you need a break from seeing. Your headspace and your happiness are valuable resources, and it’s important to be intentional about our influences.

  Five things to do right now to make your account safer

  1. Head into your settings and turn on the ‘hide offensive comments’ option. You can also add any other keywords you wish to filter out of comments on your posts and Live broadcasts.

  2. Turn on two-factor authentication, which will make your account twice as secure, and a lot harder to hack.

  3. If you have an email address in your bio, make sure it is different from the one you registered the account with. Scammers regularly use the addresses on people’s profile pages to send phishing emails and steal passwords.

  4. Make sure the email address (and any phone number) associated with your account is up to date. If you ever get locked out or hacked, you’ll need access to these accounts.

  5. Via a desktop browser, go to your Instagram settings and take a look at all the third-party apps you have given permission to access your account. Delete any you don’t recognize or no longer use regularly.

  AVOID THE VALIDATION TRAP

  Possibly the biggest danger of all, and the problem most commonly faced, is the trap of seeking validation online. A photo attracts lots of likes and we feel good, and believe our photography is worthy. If our next one receives a more muted response, we fall into a pit of despair, regret the image and believe we are terrible at everything. Sound familiar?

  By playing this game we are essentially outsourcing our sense of self-worth to an app that is not built for the task. Instagram – or indeed any social media platform – is not a democratic tool cross-sampling the population and giving back data on image and caption quality. It’s hugely skewed – by trends, by algorithms, by time of day, by userbase.

  A photo that went viral two years ago can be met with nothing but crickets today. A photo that does well is simply proof that you’re creating content that works well within the algorithm and system. If you feel yourself falling into this trap, try to unhook from both the approval and the feelings of rejection. Learn to appreciate your images for yourself, for what they bring to you, and make that your main motivation and priority.

  REMEMBER IT ISN’T REAL LIFE

  Even the most authentic, behind-the-scenes of Instagrammers are only ever sharing about 1 per cent of their life. Social media shows the edited highlights of our lives, and for most of us, that will mean the more fun and interesting bits. Yes, sometimes we also share the not-so-fun, but even then it is done carefully, with the things we feel able to share. Don’t compare your real life to someone else’s highlight reel.

  KIDS

  If you’re a parent, carer or guardian, how much to share of your kids is a thorny question. My personal stance is this: any good parent or carer should of course be considering their child’s wishes and safety at all times, online and off. If a child is old enough they should, and undoubtedly will have, a say in it (as anyone who’s ever tried to corral a reluctant kid in front of a camera lens can tell you). Statistically, there’s no evidence to say that children whose images are shared online are at any greater risk of harm by strangers, but of course, we should never take unnecessary risk. A good rule of thumb is ‘Would I want to share this picture/story if it was of myself?’ Be mindful of sharing any unnecessary personal information like school names, surnames, or locations. And, of course, if you see a post on Instagram that you feel truly puts anyone at risk, always reach out to the original poster and/or report it, as appropriate.

  YOUR PERSONAL LIFE

  One of the most powerful ways we can connect with others through the barrier of the Internet is to get personal – sharing real, vulnerable and emotive elements of our lives. I have learned this lesson myself a thousand times; that the post I’m most anxious about hitting ‘publish’ on usually winds up attracting the most wonderful response. How do we balance this against our very real need for privacy and head space? My secret method is this: I never share anything online until I feel completely okay about it in my own mind. Sometimes that means I’ll write a caption or blog post in the midst of a crisis, but then I’ll sit on it until a time a month or so later when I have enough distance to share it mindfully.

  Ten commandments for a healthy relationship with social media

  1. Share, don’t brag.

  2. Spend more time on other people’s pages than you do on your own.
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  3. Be human.

  4. Mix it up.

  5. Aim to serve others (instead of being self-serving).

  6. Create what makes you really light up.

  7. Follow your enthusiasm.

  8. Stay playful and curious and don’t take it too seriously.

  9. Take responsibility for your own boundaries.

  10. Don’t compare yourself to other people.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to Rory and Orla for all the bowls of pasta, office-chair ‘huggles’ and patient accompaniment on trips to outlandish places for ridiculous photographs. You two are my world. Orla – please try to write favourably about all this in your eventual tell-all adult memoir. I might cut you a deal on the photo rights.

  Special thanks to Jo and James of @meliamelia.co, who contributed their beautiful images, and to all the incredible creatives who generously shared their thoughts and advice in this book. It means such a lot to be able to include words from so many of the people I admire.

  Thank you (and apologies) to Sian, Isabel and Anna for getting this to print on time, and your incredible patience with my obsessive micromanagement of every last thing. This book wouldn’t be half as beautiful or special without your unending support.

  And most of all, thank you to you – readers, followers, podcast subscribers, class-takers and friends. In buying this book you have helped make a lifelong dream come true for me: I hope it goes some small way to helping you on your path to do the very same.

  First published in 2019 by White Lion Publishing,

  an imprint of The Quarto Group.

  The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street

  London N7 9BH

  United Kingdom

  T (0)20 7700 6700

  www.QuartoKnows.com

  Text and photography © 2019 Sara Tasker,

  apart from the following photographs:

  James Melia: pages 12 / 15 (top) / 18 (bottom right) / 26 / 40 / 83 / 84 / 89 / 90 / 94 (bottom left) / 128 (top right) / 132 (bottom right) / 133 (top right; bottom left) / 140 (top left) / 144 (bottom left) / 149 (top) / 180 (top left).

  Kristy Noble: page 138.

  Sara Tasker has asserted her moral right to be identified as the Author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from White Lion Publishing.

  Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of material quoted in this book. If application is made in writing to the publisher, any omissions will be included in future editions.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Digital edition: 978-1-78131-888-1

  Hardcover edition: 978-1-91112-761-1

  Design by Isabel Eeles

  Edited by Sian Parkhouse